Tag: Zimbabwe

Just what will Hillary not say to be President?

She may be a clever woman, but her judgement (or her speechwriters) is singularly troubling. Hillary’s latest argument, reported in The Huffington Post , is that there is some sort of equivalence between what is happening in Zimbabwe and the refusal of the DNC to count the Florida and Michigan primaries.  As reported by Fernando Suarez for CNS News

Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when “people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.”

“We’re seeing that right now in Zimbabwe,” Clinton explained. “Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people,” Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida. “So we can never take for granted our precious right to vote. It is the single most important, privilege and right any of us have, because in that ballot box we are all equal. You’re equal to a billionaire. You’re equal to the president, every single one of us.”

She may want the nomination but it is remarks like these which should ensure that not only does she not get it but that Obama does not entertain the idea, which is gathering some steam, that she take the junior position on the ticket.

No crisis to address?

Isn’t it enough that he denies that his country is ravaged by AIDS? Today’s comment by Thabo Mbeke, reported by Reuters, suggests that he is denial on a whole lot more,

“I wouldn’t describe that as a crisis. It’s a normal electoral process in Zimbabwe. We have to wait for ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to release (the results),” Mbeki told reporters after meeting Mugabe for an hour.”

To the rest of the world, including many of his fellow leaders, what is happening in Zimbabwe is nothing less than a constitutional coup d’etat. That perhaps the most powerful leader in Southern Africa seems to think all is “normal” says more about Mbeki than Mugabe. According to Gordon Brown, “We, and the leaders of the region, strongly share this commitment [to democracy]”. Perhaps, as has long been suspected, Mbeki doesn’t.